Women With Troubles - July 2012

Here is a compilation of women with troubles reported in news stories during July 2012. Each name is linked to an Interested-Participant blog entry displaying details.

For a more comprehensive listing, check the Women With Troubles category link. Links to month-by-month compilations are displayed on the navigation bar at left.

(AL) Dana Allen, 38,
neighbor - Gets 36 months prison for rape of boy, 14,

(CA) Chrystina Delrosario, 25,
teacher's aide - Accused of sex with male student, 15,

(CA) Amber Failla, 36,
teacher - Accused of sex with three students under 16,

(CA) Shell Amelia Harper, 24,
neighbor - Gets 180 days jail for sex with boy, 15,

(CA) Judy Lee, 39,
teacher - Accused of sex with male student,

(CA) Anel Violeta Noriega Rios, 27,
drug cartel operative - Arrested and given to Mexican authorities,

(CO) Rhonda Eisenberg, 44,
teacher - Accused of sex with student, 17, resulting in pregnancy,

(CT) Vanessa Bravo, 27,
healthcare provider - Accused of sex assault of boy, 14,

(CT) Jessica Lee Motulski, 28,
teacher - Accused of sex assault of female student,

(CT) Jean Marie Pulaski, 48,
teacher - Accused of abusing child in classroom,

(FL) Marquita Adley, 25,
basketball coach - Accused of sex with female student, 16,

(FL) Kathryn Cohen Allen, 45,
neighbor - Accused of mailing hoax anthrax letters,

(FL) Julie Marie Dengler, 31,
neighbor - Accused of child neglect and drug charges,

(GA) Crystal Leeanne Cothern, 20,
neighbor - Accused of sex with boy, 15,

(IN) Jane Kleaving, 52,
teacher - Arrested for conspiracy to commit murder,

(IN) Laura Mahuron,
teacher - Accused of contributing to delinquency for liquoring up teens,

(IN) Jessica M. Thompson, 23,
neighbor - Accused of sexual misconduct after becoming pregnant by boy, 15,

(LA) Kendra Greenwald, 33,
neighbor - Gets probation for sex with boy, 14,

(ME) Jamilee Kus, 28,
neighbor - Accused of bank robbery,

(ME) Dianne Leach, 47,
teacher - Gets year in prison for gross sex assault of student,

(ME) Jessica Pomerleau, 36,
teacher - Gets 7 years prison for sex assault of student, 15,

(MI) Andrea Deanna Brennan, 37,
teacher - Accused of liquoring up and showing porn to boy, 15,

(MI) Camille Marino, 48,
animal rights activist - Accused of aggravated stalking of university researcher,

(MO) Tameca Bryant, 23,
neighbor - Accused of felony child abuse for clobbering toddler with cast-iron skillet,

(MO) Veronica Michelle Davis aka Mia Smith, 29,
neighbor - Gets eight years prison for endangering her children,

(MO) Traci A. Storie, 37,
teacher - Accused of sex assault of student under 14,

(NC) Whitney Dow Buck, 38,
teacher - Gets 30 days jail for sex with male student, 17,

(NC) Christina Corbo, 44,
teacher - Accused of sex with two male students,

(NC) Diane Mennig, 52,
teacher - Accused of liquoring up teens,

(ND) Cynthia Kusy, 46,
neighbor - Convicted of sex with boy. Sentencing in October,

(NE) Deanna Fischer, 39,
neighbor - Accused of multiple child sex offenses,

(NJ) Brandi E. Shroyer,
teacher - Pleaded guilty to criminal sex with male student, 16. Sentencing in November,

(NY) Lissette Bamenga, 29,
teacher - Accused of murdering her two children, 4 and 5,

(NY) Sarah E. Boucher, 21,
neighbor - Accused of raping boy, 12,

(NY) Elizabeth Harrington, 32,
neighbor - Accused of engaging in sex with a boy, 14,

(NY) Christine Rubino, 39,
teacher - Suspended for 2 years for inappropriate Facebook entry,

(NY) Lina Sinha, 45,
school principal - Loses appeal. Gets 2+ years prison for sex with student,

(OH) Erica Perez, 28,
neighbor - Accused of gross neglect of her seven children,

(OK) Melissa Dawn Anson, 42,
teacher - Accused of engaging in sex with male student, 18,

(PA) Cherish Love Ashby, 21,
neighbor - Accused of spitting on police officer,

(PA) Sharon Flanagan, 33,
neighbor - Accused of attempted drowning of son, 2,

(PA) Kimberly Jo Larkin, 41,
teacher - Gets 6 to 12 months prison for corrupting boy, 16,

(PA) Tabatha Partsch aka Tabatha Sossong, 39,
neighbor - Accused of repeated rape of boys and girls,

(PA) Christy Lee Smith, 34,
teacher - Convicted of sex with two boys. Sentencing date TBD,

(PA) Christine Noelle Starry, 40,
neighbor - Accused of sex with boy, 15,

(SC) Tamara Shane Turner, 38,
neighbor - Accused of smuggling contraband in buttocks into jail,

(TN) Cindy Clifton, 41,
teacher - Gets 3 years prison for sex with several students, aged 14 to 17,

(TN) Stacy Hopkins, 29,
teacher - Pleaded guilty to sex with two male students. Sentencing in August,

(TX) Wendy Fox, 31,
teacher - Gets probation for improper relations with male student,

(TX) Rachelle Nicole Heenan, 34,
teacher - Accused of improper relations with male student, 18,

(TX) Karrie M. McKinney, 42,
teacher - Violates probation imposed due to sex offense conviction,

(TX) Kathryn "Camille" Murray, 29,
teacher - Accused of multiple sex offenses against boy, 15,

(WA) Keshia T. Shaw, 33,
teacher - Accused of sex with male student, 12.

Thanks to the tipsters, commenters and readers.

Oslo Bomb Scare




(Oslo, Norway)

The U.S. Embassy and an area of central Oslo were evacuated on Tuesday when a fake explosive device was mistakenly left beneath a vehicle trying to enter the compound, police said.

The discovery of the device by security guards also led to the evacuation of the royal palace, the halting of subway traffic in the area, and the cancellation of an international children’s soccer game at nearby Voldslokka Stadium so police could use the field for helicopters.

The bomb scare and police search closed the entire area for several hours.

Oops!

Tip: Barry B

Facebook

In May, the initial public offering price for a share of stock in Facebook Inc. was $38.00.

Today, Facebook share price closed at $21.71, a drop of 43%.

A lot of people have been hosed.

Opening Beer

Quick and easy.




You're welcome.

Australian household wealth up 20 per cent from 2004-2010 as US drops 30 per cent

Given the large basic similarities between Australia and the USA, this shows that America's decline was not inevitable. But Australia does not have big black and Hispanic minorities that pull economic policies Leftward

Australian households are doing very nicely, thankyou very much. AVERAGE household wealth jumped by more than 20 per cent between 2004 and 2010, new Treasury figures show. In comparison, median household wealth in the US declined by more than 30 per cent in the same period.

Treasurer Wayne Swan claimed his Government's credit for the figures. "Contributing to this was our stimulus response to the GFC, which protected hundreds of thousands of jobs, as well as our decent social safety net and government policies that spread opportunity," Mr Swan wrote in his economic note released yesterday. Mr Swan said Australia had not been immune from global turbulence.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb attacked the Government for taking the most optimistic forecasts available to develop its Budget. "The Budget was predicated on everything going well around the world," Mr Robb told Network Ten.

Median wealth in Australia in 2010 was a little less than $400,000, compared with mean wealth of almost $700,000 [now], according to the RBA figures.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Carolina Teacher Faces Sex Charges

(Currituck County, North Carolina) A 44-year-old teacher at Currituck County High School, Christina Corbo, has been accused of engaging in sexual relations with two male students.

Corbo faces five counts of sexual activity by a custodian.

The investigation began June 8 when someone from the Currituck County school system contacted the Sheriff's Office to report the alleged crime. Detectives immediately began looking into the case.

Because of the nature of this investigation, no additional information will be released by the Sheriff's Office, according to spokeswoman Lindsay Voorhees.

Corbo was booked into custody and subsequently released on $10,000 bond.

Sleeping with Fisherman




(Nyandiwa, Kenya)

Fish for sex in Nyandiwa trading centre along the shores of Lake Victoria has contributed to a higher rate of HIV infection making Suba district the leading in Nyanza region. When one looks at fish he or she sees food, but to communities around the Nyandiwa landing site, fish is 'sex and money,' because one has to exchange sex for fish.

“Having money is not enough, but we have to sleep with these fishermen to get fish”, said Jane Adhiambo a widow and a mother of three who earns a living through sell of fish.

Worth mentioning is that the region has a very high HIV infection rate.

Gun Control Added to Cybersecurity Bill

(Washington, D.C.)

Senate Democrats slipped in a gun control amendment to a cybersecurity bill Friday, claiming that it is time to impose "reasonable gun control measures," according to The Hill.

The cybersecurity bill has advanced to the stage in the process when amendments can be attached.

Amendments to bills often have nothing to do with the issue being addressed in the bill itself.

Senators Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., sponsored bill S.A. 2575 which would make it illegal to possess or transfer large capacity magazines, belts, feed stripes, or drums holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.[…]

Although the Senate will more than likely pass the gun ban amendment to the cybersecurity bill next week, the measure will be dead on arrival in the House where Republicans hold the majority.

Isn't it interesting that virtually all prominent members of the gun control advocacy have 24/7 bodyguards?

Companion post at GunWatch.

It's out! The new Anthony Watts paper on biased surface temperature measurements

Which, inter alia, puts a bomb under the Muller global warming claims also just published

For a private person to undertake almost single-handed such a big task as collating data from all U.S. temperature-measuring stations is a Herculean effort but Watts and his helpers have done so. There are great bureaucracies devoted to the task elsewhere.

What he has done is to show that a more rigorous measure of the urban heat island effect -- a measurement method embraced by the World Meteorological Organization -- greatly alters the resultant findings. And after that essential adjustment, the 1979-2008 U.S. temperature rise is much REDUCED, halved, in fact.

Its rather a disgrace that the official meteorological organizations have not applied the more rigorous method but they would have seen very early on that doing so would have dynamited their Warmist beliefs. Ideology trumps facts.

Below are three conclusions about the adjusted data used by Muller which I particularly like:

* Poorly sited station trends are adjusted sharply upward, and well sited stations are adjusted upward to match the already-adjusted poor stations.

* Well sited rural stations show a warming nearly three times greater after NOAA adjustment is applied.

* Urban sites warm more rapidly than semi-urban sites, which in turn warm more rapidly than rural sites.

In short, the tiny amount of global warming claimed by the Warmists gets even tinier if you bypass the conventional adjustments. Putting it another way, most of the claimed global warming is an artifact of the analytical method. It is not there in reality.

A quote from Watts about the Muller research: "“I fully accept the previous findings of these papers, including that of the Muller et al 2012 paper. These investigators found exactly what would be expected given the siting metadata they had."

In other words, the Muller paper found what it did only because of the poor data that the authors used.

Much more HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Terror Victims Tribute Cut from Olympics Broadcast




(London, England) How often do mainstream media functionaries criticize the American public, unjustifiably I believe, for lacking empathy and compassion for tragedies outside the U.S.?

It happens, I contend.

If Americans are to be portrayed as callous, I would argue that the media are a large part of the recipe, as this report demonstrates.

US television network NBC has been slammed for cutting a sombre segment, believed to be a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 London terror attacks, from its coverage of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Instead, viewers were shown Ryan Seacrest's interview with swimmer Michael Phelps.

The performance, which was accompanied by the hymn 'Abide With Me', has been widely interpreted in Britain as a tribute to the victims of the bomb attacks that killed 52 commuters in London's transit network in July 2005.

The station defended its decision not to broadcast the memorial performance, in which spectators were asked to display photos of deceased loved ones.

"Our program is tailored for the US television audience," NBC Sports spokesman Greg Hughes said.

NBC edited out the tribute to terrorism victims as if they never existed.

Through Rain, Snow, Sleet and the Elementary School

(Manchester, New Hampshire) A 44-year-old local mailman, Frank Saucier, has been accused of sexually assaulting children in his post office vehicle.

Frank Saucier faces six counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, a felony charge of indecent exposure, two misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and one count of misdemeanor sexual assault.

Saucier, of Tyngsboro, Mass., was arrested April 26 after children told their parents Saucier invited them inside his postal vehicle to "play house," police said. Investigators said a 10-year-old boy said he was spanked when he was inside the mail truck.

Saucier was originally charged with assault, but Manchester police said they continued their investigation, leading to the new indictments.

Police said that over about a month, Saucier sexually assaulted three children, girls and boys, while he was on his mail route on the west side of Manchester.

Saucier has been indicted. Arraignment is expected next month.

Tip: slwlion

The new Muller "bombshell" article

A new article by Richard Muller reporting more results of his "Berkeley" temperature project is to be published in the NYT in the next day or two. A copy of it has been leaked to skeptics and Anthony Watts is apparently preparing an exhaustive demolition of it.

So just a few notes: Muller does not dispute the small magnitude of the temperature rise over the last 150 years (though giving temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit rather than the usual scientific custom of using degrees Celsius may create that impression) and has NOTHING to say about the "Tipping point" hypothesis that is crucial to the dire prophecies of Warmists.

He also says some sensible things. I hope that the gods of copyright enforcement won't crucify me if I quote just one sentence: "I still find that much, if not most, of what is attributed to climate change is speculative, exaggerated, or just plain wrong." And he proceeds to give examples.

But his central points are that the observed temperature variations track CO2 levels and do not track solar effects. That is certainly interesting, if true, but one would have to look at WHICH solar statistics he used and WHICH records of CO2 levels he used. Prof. Ernst has shown that CO2 levels inferred from proxies do not track ACTUAL CO2 levels as directly observed over the last two centuries. I don't think I am gambling when I say that Muller did not use Prof. Ernst's figures.

The BIG weak point in Muller's article and a deadly weak point in the whole Warmist faith is one that Muller does tackle head-on. And he ends up admitting that he cannot prove his answer to the question: Are the CO2 rises caused by humans? All he has to offer by way of evidence for his belief is the correlation between CO2 levels and temperature, which completely begs the question. That there is much evidence to show that warming causes CO2 rise (via ocean outgassing) rather than the other way around he does not go anywhere near.

So rather than a bombshell, even this benighted social scientist has to see the Muller article as a damb squib. His faults are as much faults of logic as of science -- JR

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Carolina Teacher Gets 30 Days in Sex Case - Update

(Eden, North Carolina) This week, 38-year-old teacher Whitney Buck pleaded guilty to engaging in sex with a 17-year-old male student.

As a result, Buck was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

The first two days were served immediately and the rest were expected to be served on weekends. Buck must register as a sex offender for the next 30 years. She had her teaching license revoked.

She is unable to be in the presence of a child besides her two daughters. She is being given probation for the duration of her expected jail sentence, which was supposed to be no less than 8 months in prison and no more than 19 months, on two separate charges of sexual activity with a student by a teacher. Due to pleading guilty, she was able to get this reduced from her current sentence.

Buck was first suspected of having inappropriate relations with a student after the victim’s friend saw an explicit photo of her, sexted to the victim, and the friend reported it.

Reportedly, Buck is being treated for bipolar disorder.

* * * * *
Carolina Teacher Accused in Sex Case
[Previous 1/19/12 post]
(Eden, North Carolina) A 38-year-old teacher at Morehead High School, Whitney Dow Buck, has been accused of engaging in sex with a student.

The Eden Police Department received a tip about Buck on Tuesday.

Two detectives immediately contacted school administrators and told them about the information and their investigation.

As a result of the investigation, detectives Ben Curtis and Clint Simpson secured a warrant for arrest on the teacher on Wednesday.

Buck was booked into custody with bond set at $15,000. A court appearance is scheduled for February 8.

PA Woman Accused of Child Molestation

(Claysburg, Pennsylvania) A 39-year-old local woman, Tabatha Partsch aka Tabatha Sossong, has been accused of repeated rape and sex assaults of a series of boys and girls.

Partsch faces a reported 18 specific sex charges including child rape, statutory sexual assault and aggressive indecent assault.

[T]he incidents occurred in the last year at Partsch's home and involve at least a pair of 14-year-olds; a pair of 11 and 14-year-old siblings who were visiting from out of state; and the threatened boy of unspecified age and his 5-year-old victim.

Partsch was booked into custody at the Blair County Prison with bail set at $150,000.

Louisiana Teachers Union Threatens Schools



The Advocate headline - 7/27/12
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana) Posted yesterday:

The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice—today condemned the actions of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), after counsel for the teachers union yesterday sent threatening letters to schools participating in Louisiana’s statewide voucher program, urging them to drop out of the program or face a lawsuit from the union.

The letter comes despite a judge’s ruling two weeks ago that dismissed a union attempt to get an injunction stopping the program.

In the letter, which was faxed to participating voucher schools yesterday evening, a law firm retained by the LAE union threatens to initiate litigation against individual schools if they do not pledge—in writing—by 4 p.m. local time tomorrow to cease participation in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence (SSEE) program.

Kevin P. Chavous, a senior advisor to the Federation, denounced the bullying tactics as a remarkably cruel attempt to block children from attending the schools their parents have chosen for them.

Bullying by the teachers union? What a shock!

Indiana Teacher Guilty of Murder for Hire

(Troy, Indiana) In November 2011, 52-year-old teacher Jane Kleaving was arrested for attempting to hire a contract murderer to kill an Owensboro KY man.

Law enforcers received a tip and a sting operation was initiated, leading to Kleaving's arrest.

This week, Kleaving was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

State police say the former Tell City teacher met an undercover officer at a Spencer County park, thinking he was a hit man.

They say Kleaving couldn't pay the whole fee, so she offered to stage a burglary at her home, and make an insurance claim.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Kleaving thought the man she wanted to have killed was sexually abusing a relative.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 22.

Britain's brainless Met Office

An interesting correspondence below -- forwarded to me. Among other things, they can't even spell such simple words as "truly" or "huge". I start with an email to them:

Dear Met Office,

You may know of the late Mr Norman Holdsworth, who was a senior Met Office weather forecaster for decades. He served at Cyprus ; Aberporth, Wales and Bracknell.

Norman was a lovely man.... a real gentleman of high intellect. He always used to tell me that he never believed in the twin falsehoods........"global warming" and "climate change".

Since he's died, we have had four successive winters in the UK, with long spells of severe weather.

So where is the EVIDENCE for anthropomorphic "global warming" ........ now dubbed "climate change" to try and dupe people even further?

Could you please supply PROOF that there has been global warming over the last 10 years ?

Yours faithfully,

L J Jenkins,

The Met reply below

Dear L J Jenkins,

The evidence for climate change is vast and if you wish to truely understand the physical forces at work you will need to be prepared to do a certain amount of reading to gain this. There are hugh amounts of scientific research available in the public domain. However as a good overview, I would refer you to the web site of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/contents.html and the Met Office Hadley Centre publications which can be found here (in particular the one titled "Evidence"): http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/library/publications/climate-change.

The Met Office Hadley Centre is the UK’s national centre for climate change research. Partly funded by DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change) and Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the Hadley Centre provides in-depth information to the Government and advise them on climate change issues using expert scientific evidence. Our climate scientists undertake studies of the global climate using similar, though more extensive, models of the atmospheres, as are used for the prediction of weather conditions.

In its Fourth Assessment Review, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that there is unequivocal evidence from observations that the Earth is warming. It further stated and that most of the observed warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in man-made greenhouse gas concentrations. By “very likely”, the IPCC means a 90% probability or greater. This broad climate change message has also been strongly supported by the world’s top Academy of Sciences, including the Royal Society in the UK and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA.

In view of this, the Met Office firmly believes that climate research has captured the essential aspects of what is causing our planet to warm. It is now time to look at strategies for adaptation and mitigation; better defining uncertainty and improving regional detail in climate models. This is where our efforts will and should be directed.

Trish Lamb,

Climate Science Enquiries Coordinator

If Trish had another brain, she'd be lonely

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Picture




Source

Connecticut Woman and Boy

(West Haven, Connecticut) A 27-year-old local healthcare woman, Vanessa Bravo, has been arrested for alleged sex assault of a 14-year-old Kentucky boy.

Bravo faces a charge of child sex assault.

Bravo, who lives in West Haven, was arrested by West Haven officers and held at the police department over night.

She will be extradited to Shelby County in Kentucky to face charges.

Details on the alleged sexual assault are unavailable.

Alabama Woman Gets Prison - Update

(Florence, Alabama)

A Lauderdale County judge sentenced Dana Allen to 36 months in prison.

Officials said the sentence was part of a plea deal.

Allen was found guilty of second degree rape after she admitted to having sex with multiple underage boys, but only one was under the age of 16.

Allen's attorney and husband asked the judge for probation, but the judge ordered Allen to serve her sentence in full, behind bars.

No news on whether Allen will be required to register as a sex offender.

* * * * *
Alabama Woman and Boy, 14
[Previous 2/2/12 post]
(Florence, Alabama) A 38-year-old woman, Dana Myhan Allen, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Allen has been charged with second-degree rape.

The youth is a student at Wilson High School. Lauderdale County Superintendent Bill Valentine says school officials conducted their own investigation several months ago when rumors of inappropriate behavior surfaced.

Lauderdale County Chief Investigator Travis Clemmons says deputies were looking into the allegations for more than a week before Allen was arrested.

Allen was booked into custody at the Lauderdale County Jail with bond set at $5,000.

Texas Teacher Arrested for Probation Violation - Updated

(Cass County, Texas) Former Hughes Springs teacher Karrie M. McKinney has been arrested for violating probation.

* * * * *
Texas Teacher Gets Probation in Sex Case - Updated
[Previous 4/6/12 post]
(Hughes Springs, Texas) Last month, former Hughes Springs Elementary School teacher Karrie M. McKinney pleaded guilty to a charge of improper relationship between an educator and student.

As a result, District Judge Ralph Burgess in the Fifth District Court of Cass County sentenced McKinney to 10 years in prison, suspended, and 10 years of community supervision.

McKinney’s community service sentence carried these special conditions: She must pay a $5,000 fine, abide by conditions set by Cass County, and perform 350 hours of community service. Also, she must abstain from alcohol and illegal drugs and submit to chemical testing, have no contact with the student or his family, and must submit a DNA sample.

In addition, she must must provide probation officers with passwords to all electronic devices.

McKinney's teaching credentials have also been revoked.

* * * * *
Texas Teacher Faces Sex Charge
[Previous 8/12/11 post]
(Hughes Springs, Texas) A 41-year-old Hughes Springs Elementary School teacher, Karrie McKinney, has been accused of engaging in sexual relations with a 16-year-old student.

McKinney faces a charge of improper relationship between an educator and a student, a second-degree felony. According to Hughes Springs Police Chief Randy Kennedy,

The alleged incident happened July 28, Kennedy said. He would not provide specifics about the alleged conduct or whether it happened more than once.

McKinney was booked into custody at the Cass County Jail and later released on $25,000 bond.

Ohio Department of Education Investigated

(Columbus, Ohio)

The investigation into possible manipulation of test scores at Ohio schools has moved statewide, with the Ohio's Auditor's Office now questioning what, if any, role the Ohio Department of Education had in the changes.

State Auditor Dave Yost sent a letter today to the Ohio Board of Education, asking for information related to attendance report manipulation at Columbus City Schools, Toledo Public Schools, and Lockland Local Schools. School officials appeared to have manipulated data at those districts to remove scores for students who were chronically truant, improving their attendance rates and test scores.

Reports of the manipulation originated in Columbus, but has expanded to other schools. Mr. Yost said he is expanding a review of the manipulation statewide, he wrote, including possible involved by state education agency.

"In short, it appears that attendance report rigging is not a localized problem with Columbus Public Schools, but that it may be more systemic," Mr. Yost wrote, "and that raises the question of what role ODE played during the time that false reports were made by multiple schools."

Tip of the iceberg? We'll see.

Too Many Smooches

(Abuja, Nigeria)

In an extraordinary case of jealousy, a Nigerian man - husband of six - was allegedly raped to death by his five spouses as he was paying too much attention to his sixth wife in east-central Benue state.

Uroko Onoja, a wealthy businessman, was having sex with his youngest wife when the other five women attacked him with knives and sticks, demanding that he have sex with all of them at once.

Onoja, who resisted their attack, was overpowered by the women who ordered that the sex march begin with the youngest wife and to continue in that order to the top, Nigeria's Daily reported.

Onoja stopped breathing when the fifth woman was making her way to the bed.

I'm skeptical. It's more logical that the knives and sticks would have led to his death.

Tip: slwlion

Transient Greenland warming excites Warmists

Yep! FOUR WHOLE DAYS days that were warmer than anything else in 30 years. They tell us that 10 years is too short a period upon which to base generalizations but for them just 4 days is enough! Anthony Watts has a more detailed assault on this latest bit of malarkey

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at an "unprecedented" rate, according to NASA satellite data that shows 97 per cent of the vast mass is undergoing some form of melting.

"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: Was this real or was it due to a data error?" a NASA researcher, Son Nghiem, said.

About half of the ice sheet usually shows signs of melting in a northern hemisphere summer, but the satellite data shows that between July 8 and July 12 the melt extended to cover almost all of Greenland.

It follows the breaking off this month of a giant chunk of ice from Greenland's Petermann Glacier. This formed an iceberg about twice the size of Manhattan, about 120 square kilometres in area.

"For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations," NASA researchers said in a statement.

"Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile [3.2-kilometre] thick centre, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analysed by NASA and university scientists."

They described the event as being without precedent, because such a massive loss of ice has not been observed by humans, although estimates derived from studying old, compressed ice suggest that melts on this scale happen about once every 150 years....

The NASA statement said the huge melt had been driven by an unusual "heat dome" of relatively warm air that travelled across Greenland this month. The warm patch spiked just before July 18, and has now dissipated, they said.

More HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Hugo Chavez Endorses Obama for Reelection

No surprise at this news.

Florida Woman Accused of Anthrax Hoax

(Jacksonville, Florida) From a U.S. Attorney press release:

Kathryn Cohen Allen, 45, Jasper, Fla., was charged in an indictment unsealed today with nine counts of mailing hoax anthrax letters, announced U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Robert E. O’Neill.

If convicted on all counts, Allen faces a maximum penalty of 45 years in federal prison.

According to the indictment, between June 24, 2011, and June 28, 2011, Allen mailed threatening letters containing a white powdery substance to the offices of U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson. She also mailed similar letters to the Hamilton County, Fla., Correctional Institution, the Hamilton County Health Department, the Hamilton County Tax Collector’s Office, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services and to three private citizens.

Field and laboratory testing determined that the white powdery substance was not hazardous.

The offices of Sens. Nelson and Rubio cited law enforcement diligence.

Gun Sales Jump After Colorado Movie Massacre

(Denver, Colorado)

Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie massacre as buyers express fears about both personal safety and lawmakers who are using the shooting to seek new weapons restrictions.

In Colorado, the site of Friday's shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm _ 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior.

Other locations reporting double-digit percentage sales increases include Florida, Oregon, California, Georgia and Washington's King County.

Companion post at GunWatch.

Kim Jong-Un Married



North Korean Leader and wife
(Pyongyang, North Korea)

NORTH Korean state media has confirmed that its new leader Kim Jong-Un is married and named his wife as Ri Sol-Ju.

The announcement ended weeks of speculation about the identity of a stylish young woman pictured accompanying the young leader to official events this month.

State television reported that Mr Kim and Ms Ri took part in a ceremony marking the completion of a Pyongyang amusement park.

Interestingly, the report states that Kim Jong-Un got to pick his wife's name.

Spinning like a top

Reported below is that CO2 emissions FOLLOWED a temperature rise, whereas Warmists claim that CO2 CAUSES temperature rise and is hence prior to it.

Does a small detail like that bother them? Not a bit! By adding a lot of assumptions they pretend that it should alarm us. They just assume what they have to prove: That CO2 is a significant influence on temperature and that a positive feedback loop will take place to produce more warming

The researcher even resorts to lies, as in "the rapid increase now in CO2 is also driving up temperatures". Awkward fact: Temperatures have in fact been stable for about the last 15 years. CO2 certainly is increasing but it's not driving anything

AN Australian Antarctic scientist has made a climate studies breakthrough by examining how the earth warmed up after the last Ice Age.

Glaciologist Joel Pedro, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, is part of an international team that has worked out how quickly carbon entered the atmosphere as a result of temperature rises beginning around 19,000 years ago.

The team discovered that CO2 increased naturally in the atmosphere much more quickly than previously thought during an 8000-year period of global warming.

"The new thing here is to pin down the time scales of how that worked in the past," Dr Pedro told AAP. "If there was a lag at all then it was likely no more than 400 years. "We can't rule out that the two just happen at the same time, whereas previously the figures were more like a thousand (years)."

The finding suggests "feedback" in the climate system - where temperature increases CO2, which in turn increases temperature - happens faster than expected.

It also lends support to theories that the oceans warmed more quickly than the 1000 years it was thought was needed for a significant change to occur.

Dr Pedro spent a month drilling ice cores at Law Dome near Casey Station in Eastern Antarctica in 2008-09. His findings have just been published in the journal Climate of the Past.

The study has been hailed as a major step forward in understanding more recent problems, with US ice core specialist Eric Steig saying it has major implications for understanding the carbon cycle and climate change.

Dr Pedro says the study of natural warming only underlines the speed at which human-created climate change has occurred. He says 8000 years' worth of natural CO2 increases have been created in the 200 years since the industrial revolution.

"Just as the steady increase in CO2 helped to melt the ice caps and warm the earth out of the ice age, the rapid increase now in CO2 is also driving up temperatures, only at a much faster rate," he said. "What we're doing now is over a hundred times faster."

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Teacher Lina Sinha Sentenced - Update

(New York City) Former Montessori school principal Lina Sinha has exhausted her appeals and she has been sentenced.

But there was no mercy this morning for Lina Sinha, the beautiful former headmistress of an Upper East Side Montessori school, who was finally sent away to serve at least 2 1/3 years in prison for her twisted and damaging sex affair with a student who was just 13.

"This is a woman of every advantage, and she preyed on her victim for years," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman said as the predatory ex-principal stared glumly down at the defense table.

Tearful, Sinha spoke briefly at the proceeding but offered no apology.

* * * * *
Appeal Fails for Teacher Lina Sinha - Update
[Previous 6/28/12 post]
(Albany, New York)

New York's top court has upheld two sodomy convictions of a former private school headmistress and teacher convicted of having a years-long sexual relationship with an underage student.

The Court of Appeals, agreeing with a midlevel court, says prosecutors' failure to disclose evidence helpful to the defense did not affect the guilty verdicts against Lina Sinha (LEE'-nah SIHN'-hah).

The lower court threw out her conviction for allegedly bribing another student, citing "intolerable" prosecutor conduct.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined comment Wednesday.

Sinha now must serve several years in prison.

* * * * *
Teacher Lina Sinha Gets Prison
[Previous 4/19/07 post]
(New York City) Finally, a conclusion has been reached in the case of 40-year-old Manhattan Montessori School teacher Lina Sinha. Last month, Sinha was convicted by a jury on felony counts of sodomy and witness bribery.

Today, Justice Carol Berkman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan sentenced Sinha to four and two-thirds to 14 years in prison.

Notably, Justice Berkman remarked that Sinha grew up in an environment of privilege which introduced her to many options in life. Sinha was "well-raised" and "beautiful." Disturbingly, however, she used her education, sophistication and superior position to violate the boy's sexual innocence and abuse their trust and that of society. For all this, Justice Berkman believes Ms. Sinha is "all the more culpable."

Previous:

04/02/07 - Parents Bail Out Lina Sinha
03/30/07 - Lina Sinha "Nasty in Manhattan" Convicted
02/27/07 - Lina Sinha Trial Underway
10/20/06 - 'Nasty in Manhattan' Going to Trial
09/06/06 - Teacher Lina Sinha Offered Plea Deal
05/31/06 - Teacher Lina Sinha - Nasty in Manhattan
10/30/05 - Female Teacher Charged with Rape of Student

Louisiana Woman Gets Probation in Sex Case - Update

(Gretna, Louisiana)

A New Orleans woman was ordered to serve two years of probation today for her conviction of having sex with a 14-year-old boy in Gretna two years ago.

Kendra Greenwald, 33, eluded prison time for her July 12 conviction of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, in connection with the June 10, 2010 encounter inside her 12th Street apartment.

The boy's mother alerted police after learning her son had sex with Greenwald, who was 31 at the time. Greenwald contends the boy, now 16, forced her to have sex by threatening her and to harm her child.

Greenwald, who is now married and had no criminal history before her conviction, could have faced up to 10 years in prison. Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court ordered she serve one year in prison, but he suspended the incarceration in favor of two years of probation with the condition she get her GED and receive counseling.

"You have a small child," LaDart told her in explaining the sentencing. "I understand you're pregnant."

Greenwald was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

* * * * *
Louisiana Woman Guilty of Sex with Boy
[Previous 7/13/1 post]
(Gretna, Louisiana) In June 2010, a 31-year-old local woman, Kendra Greenwald, was accused of engaging in sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Yesterday, Kendra Greenwald, now 33, was convicted by a jury after 45 minutes of deliberation.

As deputies placed Greenwald in handcuffs, she muttered something about her husband and the courts being "crooked."

By then, Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court had already ordered her to jail, where she will remain at least until he hands down his sentence on July 23. Carnal knowledge of a juvenile carries a sentence range of probation to no more than 10 years in prison.

Greenwald had no criminal history, not even an arrest, her attorney Bruce Netterville noted in asking LaDart to allow her to remain free on bond, either until her sentencing or during the appeal.

Assistant District Attorney Seth Shute opposed the request, characterizing Greenwald as "a flight risk."

I speculate that Greenwald will be treated leniently at sentencing.

Former Astronaut Sally Ride Dead at 61


Sally Ride

(La Jolla, California) Sally Ride died at her home yesterday from pancreatic cancer. Ride was 61.

Ride rode into space on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 when she was 32. After her flight, more than 42 other American women flew in space, NASA said.

"Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Ride "broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America's space program."

Condolences to family and friends.

Despite all the Leftist attempts to crush it, old-fashioned chivalry lives on in America

Would feminists have preferred it if the women had died? Probably. They are deranged enough for that

Besides all being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the morning of July 20, Jansen Young, Samantha Yowler and Amanda Lindgren have one other thing in common: each was saved from James Holmes’ murderous rampage by their loving, heroic boyfriends.

Young, Yowler and Lindgren all survived the Batman Movie Massacre this past Friday because their boyfriends jumped on top of them and used their own bodies to shield them from the gunfire. That act of courageousness came at a cost, though, as Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves all wound up losing their own lives in the process.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Colorado Blood

I believe in the power of prayer. I don't think I know anybody in Aurora, CO, but my prayers are for the families.

I have a theory. Just looking at the douchebag, or should I refer to him as the 'alleged' douchebag, this guy is narcissistic. He grew up playing baseball on teams and leagues that didn't keep score and at season's end everyone got a trophy.

Mr. James Holmes never experienced failure.

So, when he experienced life as an adult, he resorted to behavior motivated by his poorly-taught brain which was nourished in thoughts that he could never fail.

Mommy always comes kisses and ice cream.

Last I heard, 12 dead and 58 wounded.

Housekeeping

Hurt my back. Kinda laid up.

Leftists desperately scrabbling to find racism in Romney and his supporters

The unexpected problem for the plug-uglies on the left is that neither Romney nor Republicans and other conservatives are acting like Republicans and conservatives are "supposed to act." They're not following their assigned roles in the script with harsh language and unyielding prejudices, reflecting what has happened everywhere. The n-word, for example, has been long banished from the conversation, at least in public, by nearly everyone.

Sometimes the "racism" ascribed to conservatives is so subtle that no one but the accuser could recognize it. Recent observations that the president looks '"skinny" is supposed to be racist code for a type who is "good at basketball." Mocking the former law professor is said to be code for "uppity." Any criticism or observation from certain quarters is code for racist.

The fact is that it's the Republicans who have blazed the way for greater acceptance of blacks in high office. George W. Bush appointed Colin Powell as his first secretary of state -- the first black to hold such high office in America -- and when he departed he was replaced by Condoleezza Rice. In the Republican presidential primaries earlier this year, Herman Cain, a relatively obscure black businessman, unexpectedly prospered and briefly led in the polls.

Source

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Maine Teacher Gets Prison for Sex - Update

(Alfred, Maine) From yesterday:

A former RSU 57 teacher, charged by sheriff’s deputies with having sex with a 15-year-old student last year, pleaded guilty this morning and was ordered to spend seven years of a 12-year sentence in prison.

Jessica Pomerleau, 36, of Limerick, was led away in handcuffs after pleading guilty to two counts of gross sexual assault and two counts of aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs, all Class C felonies.

I'd do her.

* * * * *
Maine Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 10/11/11 post]
(Waterboro, Maine) A 36-year-old special ed teacher at Massabesic High School, Jessica Pomerleau, has been accused of engaging in sex with and providing drugs to a 15-year-old student.

Pomerleau faces charges of gross sexual assault and aggravated furnishing drugs.

Investigators say the mother of another student reported to the school's resource officer that "Mrs. Pomerleau" was involved in in inappropriate relationship with a former student. Deputies say a search warrant was executed at Pomerleau's home in Limerick.

The sheriff's office will not say if the victim was one of her students. RSU 57 officials say the allegation claims the relationship took place during the last school year and possibly continued over the summer. School officials say Pomerleau was transferred out of the classroom on September 29, when administrators first learned of the allegation.

Pomerleau was booked into custody with bail set at $25,000.

No Warming Since Kyoto Was Rejected Fifteen Years Ago

The US Senate unanimously rejected Kyot0 in 1997, and since then there has been no change in global temperature.



The lesson from this might seem obvious, but the woman below is having a tough time figuring it out.

"The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, warned on Monday that global warming will accelerate at a dramatic rate unless leaders reach a deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible"

The current rate of warming is 0.0 degrees per century. Imagine the disaster if that increased by a factor of ten. Our leaders tell us that we need to do much better than Kyoto, in order to slow down global warming even further.

SOURCE (See the original for links)

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes in Laissez-faire and Communism:

"I criticize doctrinaire State Socialism, not because it seeks to engage men's altruistic impulses in the service of Society, or because it departs from Laissez-faire, or because it takes away from man's natural liberty to make a million, or because it has courage for bold experiments.

All these things I applaud.

I criticize it because it misses the significance of what is actually happening; because it is, in fact, little better than a dusty survival of a plan to meet the problems of fifty years ago, based upon a misunderstanding of what someone said a hundred years ago."

It's arguable but Keynesian economics is largely excrement, believing government spending is the substance of an economy. Nevertheless, even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn.

The 170-Strikes Pressing Flesh Threshhold




(Jersey City, New Jersey) Almost there is Gian Verdelli, a 61-year-old groper, who was accused this week of groping a woman on a PATH train.

Mr. Verdelli has been arrested 168 times previously, largely for sexual offenses.

I'm guessing that once Verdelli hits the the 170-arrest mark, he'll be sentenced to community service. It's fairly obvious that the law enforcement community has been unable to rehabilitate, punish nor enlighten Mr. Verdelli.

Tip: slwlion

Russian Muslim Leader Shot Dead

(Kazan, Tatarstan)

One Russian Muslim leader has been shot dead and another wounded, in separate attacks in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, officials say.

The Mufti of Tatarstan, Ildus Fayzov, was injured when his car was blown up as he left a radio station in the city of Kazan.

A former deputy mufti, Valiulla Yakupov, was shot dead near his home at about the same time.

Reportedly, both men were known for their fierce opposition to Muslim extremism and radical Islamist groups.

Connecticut Teacher Accused of Child Abuse

(Trumbull, Connecticut) A 48-year-old special needs teacher at Trumbull Early Childhood Education Center, Jean Marie Pulaski, has been accused of abusing a three-year-old girl in her classroom.

Pulaski faces a charge of second-degree breach of peace.

Police said the nurse told them that shortly after noon on April 24 she had been in Pulaski's classroom when she saw the girl leave her chair at the table. Pulaski, who was seated to the right of the child, rose and grasped her by the shoulders and forcefully reseated her, police said. They said Pulaski then lifted the chair the girl was sitting in and roughly pushed it closer to the table. Pulaski then grabbed the girl's hair and quickly pushed her head down, striking the girl's head on the table top, police said.

Police said Pulaski harshly told the girl, "I told you to keep your head down." When the girl raised her head, Pulaski again pushed the girl's head down, according to police.

Police said the nurse told them she later examined the girl, but found no evidence of injury.

Pulaski was booked into custody and released on $10,000 bond.

Animal-Rights Activist Accused of Stalking

(Detroit, Michigan) Last Friday, Florida animal-rights activist Camille Marino, 48, was ordered to stand trial for stalking a university researcher, Donal O'Leary, and violating bond conditions.

Marino is charged with aggravated stalking and unlawful posting of a message with aggravating circumstances.

Prosecutors allege Marino was harassing O'Leary and posting comments and his home address on a "Negotiation is Over" blog and social media sites. Defense has argued Marino has a right to political speech which is protected under the First Amendment.

Bryant-Weeks said Marino's actions exceeded politically protected speech and "went to direct threats."

In court Friday, prosecutors also produced a July 2 post on Marino's blog that links to an article by another animal activist that brings up a picture of O'Leary being killed. The judge in June ordered Marino to stop posting on the website.

O'Leary testified Friday that the photo depicted him with his eye gouged out and buried in sand with his mouth sewn shut.

A bond amount increase to $500,000 was ordered by 36th District Court Judge Lynise Bryant-Weeks. Arraignment is scheduled for July 20.

One of the Largest on Record

(San Francisco, California)

A man famous for having one of the largest penises on record told CBS San Francisco that he was recently frisked by TSA agents at San Francisco International Airport after they suspected he was hiding something in his pants.

New York native Jonah Falcon, 41, said that he was returning from a weekend in San Francisco on July 9 when he was delayed by TSA agents who became curious about the bulge in his pants.[…]

“They asked me if that’s a growth – and I said no, that’s my dick,” he said in a phone interview with CBS SF.

Reportedly, it is better than a foot.

Tip: slwlion

Missouri Mom Accused of Child Abuse

(Senath, Missouri) A 23-year-old local mother, Tameca Bryant, has been accused of clobbering her 23-month-old toddler son with a cast iron skillet.

Bryant has been charged with several counts of felony child abuse.

The toddler was taken to Leboheaur Hospital with various injuries ranging from bruising all over his body to a fractured skull, broken arm and a subdural hematoma from what doctors believe to be the result of blunt force trauma to his head.

The incident reportedly happened on June 2, but the mother, Tameca Bryant, 23, allegedly waited over 24 hours to seek help for the boy’s potentially fatal injuries she inflicted upon him.

Bryant was booked into custody at the Dunklin County Detention Center with bond set at $100,000.

Internet Censorship in Russia

(Moscow, Russia) A report from earlier this month.

The Duma has passed the first reading of a bill that would allow for nationwide filtering of blacklisted sites. The black list would be maintain by not-for-profit organization and include sites with underage pornography, "extremism," and - oddly - pro-suicide propaganda aimed at children.

In addition, that not-for-profit watchdog would also maintain an ever-changing list of "18+", "16+", "14+" and such sites. Public access providers would have to block sites from that second list if they allow underage users.

Now, this all wouldn't be too bad if implemented in a country with a vigorous and influential pro-free speech movement.[…]

But this being Russia, the potential for abuse is enormous. "Extremist" is a universal label attachable to anything in the world, even The Reader's Digest -- all it takes is a ruling from a provincial Russian court.

(More….)

PA Teacher Gets Jail for Corrupting Boy - Updated

(York County, Pennsylvania) Former teacher Kimberly Jo Larkin, 41, has been sentenced by Common Pleas Judge Craig Trebilcock for engaging in sex with a 16-year-old boy.

Trebilcock handed down an unexpected sentence, ordering her to serve 6 to 12 months in York County Prison, calling her actions "despicable" and saying she's "a huge discredit" to her profession. People like her are the reason, he said, that "good teachers" can't hug a child who's suffering.[…]

Deputy prosecutor Lauren Carella requested only five years' probation, and defense attorney Terrence McGowan said he expected Larkin would receive a probationary sentence. Larkin was given a year of probation for the alcohol-related conviction and granted a month to find somewhere for her children to live before reporting to jail.

The judge said his hangup was with the "disconnect" between the upstanding woman presented in court and the actions she admitted performing.

Larkin testified in April that she had sex with the boy five times in July 2010, when the teen was no longer her student.

She said she wanted to help the boy, whom she described as "very lost," and on June 5, 2010 - the day after he left Paradise School - she drove him to fast-food restaurants to help him apply for jobs.

She admitted the teen drank alcohol, which she'd bought on at least one occasion, but said he "helped himself" to it and she didn't furnish it to him.

The relationship ended after she learned he was texting a girl; Larkin became jealous and broke up with him, she said.

Interestingly, Larkin has a son the same age as her male victim.

* * * * *
PA Teacher Guilty of Corrupting Boy - Updated
[Previous 4/12/12 post]
(York County, Pennsylvania) After less than three hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Kimberly Jo Larkin of institutional sexual assault on the basis that the sexual relationship with the 16-year-old boy started after he was no longer her student.

However, Larkin was convicted of corrupting a minor and furnishing alcohol to a minor. According to defense attorney Terrence McGowan,

"It's a bittersweet victory," he said. "Her career is over."

The corruption conviction bans her from teaching for the rest of her life, he said.

"I'm not excusing her behavior," McGowan said. "She crossed the line. She screwed up. ... She's just glad to avoid a felony conviction."

Sentencing is scheduled for July 16.

* * * * *
Female Teacher, 39, Accused of Doing Boy, 16
[Previous 12/17/10 post]
(York County, Pennsylvania) A 39-year-old teacher at the Paradise School for Boys, Kimberly Larkin aka Kimberly Jo Larkin, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in repeated sex with a 16-year-old male student.

Community members are outraged, especially after learning Larkin is also accused of giving the student marijuana and alcohol, and a cell phone with hopes of keeping their relationship concealed.

"She knew what she was doing, she knew it was wrong because she had to sneak the cell phone," said resident Clara Hicks.

The Paradise School is for boys aged 12 to 16 who have gone through the juvenile probation system.



Companion post at The Jawa Report.

Beef Production in Russia




From RIA Novosti:

The Russian government is ambitiously implementing an almost $1-billion investment project in the agricultural sector in order to develop and secure domestic beef production that was severely damaged during the Stalin era.

In Russia’s southern region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine and Belarus some 200 miles to the southwest of Moscow, the country’s biggest meat importer, Miratorg Agribusiness Holding, has so far launched 16 open range cattle ranches. By the end of 2014, the company plans to expand the number of ranches to 33 with an overall stock of 250,000 Aberdeen Angus, which is considered by many to be the best beef breed.

Live cattle stock is being imported from Australia and the United States by ship to the ports of Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea, and St. Petersburg, and then hauled on semi-trucks to the farms.[…]

Each of the farms in this conglomerate in Bryansk is headed by an American rancher, selected for his knowledge, professionalism, skills, and his ability to share his wisdom with Russian farmers and students. There are more than 1,600 people from farmhands and veterinarians to construction workers and animal husbandry specialists working in Miratorg cattle farms throughout the region. As the business expands, so will job opportunities for local residents.

Anthony Stidham, 48, of Ada, Oklahoma, has been living on the ranch for 18 months and is also the “district head” in the area, supervising six ranches.

Asylum for Gay Iraqis

In the Netherlands:

The situation facing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq is so serious that they do now qualify for asylum in the Netherlands, immigration minister Gerd Leers said on Thursday.

However, would-be refugees will have to prove they are from Iraq, the minister said in a briefing.

It's unknown if proof of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender proclivities is required.

When Cocaine Was Legal




Source

OKC Man Shoots Himself in Genitals

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) A 36-year-old man with prior felony convictions, Tavares Donnell Colbert, has been arrested after accidentally shooting himself in the genitals while on his way to sell the gun.

Colbert faces one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to Colbert, he was on his way to S.E. 44th and Shields when he pulled over to the check the gun. He said he'd had problems with it earlier and wanted to make sure it was functioning properly.

Colbert told police when he tried to force the slide back, he also had his finger on the trigger. The gun went off and he shot himself in the penis. According to the police report, Colbert panicked and drove himself to the hospital.

Colbert was booked into custody at the Oklahoma County Jail.

Companion post at GunWatch.

Journalist Chris Mooney is feeling his way towards an understanding of the psychology of politics

In his article briefly excerpted below he has acknowledged that there are two sides to the debate over the merits and demerits of conservatism and notes that conservatives as a whole are markedly happier than Leftists, which is a considerable step forwards for him. Perhaps the best indication of his naivety is that he sees the debate as going back "well over a decade". In fact it has been going on for over 60 years. He still has a lot of catching up to do.

His basic mistake below is one common throughout science -- interpreting a correlation as if you JUST KNOW the direction of the causal arrow. He assumes that conservatism makes you happy when there is a much stronger case for arguing that happiness makes you conservative.

That is most easily seen if you look at the converse of conservatism: Leftism. What is ABSOLUTELY distinctive about Leftism? Dissatisfaction. They seem to like very little in the world about them and are never satisfied. Regardless of what they have already achieved, they are always wanting to change something -- whether by legislation or by revolution. So conservatives are simply people who don't have such motivations. There are a lot of things that conservatives would like to change -- such as Obamacare and affirmative action, but they don't have that PERVASIVE dissatisfaction with the world about them that Leftists do. In psychological terms, Leftists are maladjusted and conservatives are not.

Poor old Mooney is still relying on the ludicrous Kruglansky work for much of his understanding. One hopes that as he explores the world of psychological research, he realizes what a crock it is. Kruglanski argues that conservatives are less "open", a question that was originally addressed by Rokeach in 1960.

Another energetic proponent of that view is Van Hiel. But nobody has managed to prove what Mooney believes. See here for Van Hiel and here for problems in the work of Rokeach.

Rokeach in particular might be something of an embarrassment to Mooney in that he argued that closed-mindedness is equally found on both the Left and the Right. And research with general population samples using Rokeach's methods bears that out. Given the problems in Rokeach's measurement methods, however, the question is best regarded as unresolved. Mooney would be wise to forget the whole idea.

Since Mooney mentioned it, perhaps a brief comment on the Napier & Jost paper is in order. They conclude that "the relation between political orientation and subjective well-being is mediated by the rationalization of inequality". You could, however, quite reasonably replace the quite loaded psychological term "rationalization" with "acceptance" and get a rather different impression. Once again you find that conservatives are well adjusted to the world as it is and Leftists are not.

Mooney ends up concluding that conservatism is "somnambulant" -- i.e. that conservatives are happy only because they are sleepwalking through the word, unaware of the realities of it. I myself once tried to assess that proposition by constructing a measure of "realism" but gave up because I could see no way of doing it in a non-ideological way. If Mooney has any evidence for his assertion, I would therefore be delighted to see it.

Conservatism makes you happy

In general, political conservatives haven’t been very pleased with a slew of scientific attempts — sometimes dating back well over a decade — to psychoanalyze their beliefs and behavior. Indeed, some on the right wrongly interpret these analyses as implying that conservatives have “bad brains” or a “mental defect.” Yet if psychology-of-politics research is really a veiled attack on the right, then why does it contain so many findings that cast conservatives in a positive light?

Chief among these, perhaps, is the discovery that conservatives, across countries, tend to be just plain happier people than liberals are. That’s not bad news for the right — it’s seriously bad news for the left.

Indeed, the left-right “happiness gap” is no small matter. In a 2006 Pew Survey, for instance, 47 percent of conservative Republicans said they were “very happy,” compared with just 28 percent of liberal Democrats. Furthermore, the Pew Survey found that this result could not simply be attributed to the seemingly obvious cause: differences in income levels between the left and the right. Rather, for every income group in the study, conservative Republicans were happier than Democrats..........

The upshot of this research, to my mind, is that it provides a huge wake-up call to liberals who would dismiss conservatism, and their conservative brethren, without understanding this ideology’s appeal or what its adherents are getting out of it. Overall, the happiness research suggests that conservatism is giving something to people that liberalism is not — community, stability, certainty, and perhaps, in Jost’s words, an “emotional buffer” against all the unfairness in the world.

Knowing this, one still may not want the type of somnambulant happiness that conservatism conveys (I certainly don’t). But it would be foolhardy to mistake its appeal. The world is hard and cruel and perhaps, as predominantly liberal atheists suspect, ultimately meaningless. In this context, it appears, political conservatism is doing much more than political liberalism to get people through the day.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Ohio Driver's License

A while back, I went to the driver's license bureau for license renewal, something I've done a number of times in several states over the years. Typically, the process is simple - turn in old license, pose for mugshot, take vision test, pay for new license, check it for errors, then leave.

Notably, besides home address and issue/expiration dates, the information displayed on my driver's licenses over the years has been largely unchanged from that which was displayed on my first license, obtained as a 16-year-old decades ago. I've never even been questioned about my weight which, you'll read it here first, has inched up over the years.

In any event, the last visit to get my license renewed was different. The government functionary looked at me and said, "Your hair is not blonde. Looks brown to me … And, you don't need corrective lenses."

I choked, "What?" My hair color had not changed. It's always been a somewhat dirty blonde. And my eyesight is actually a little worse with age. "How can you say that?' I asked. She glared, "You want to argue?"

I stepped back and acquiesced, realizing it wasn't something I could change since the woman's mind was made up. After all, it was a government worker telling me my hair color had changed and I can see clearly without corrective lenses.

My driver's license now says I have brown hair and I don't need glasses. It's wrong on both counts.

Piranha in China

(Liuzhou, China) Flesh-eating South American piranha are now in the Liujiang River in China, several hundred miles from the coast.

Swimmers reported seeing several of ruby-red piranhas, also called the sharp-snouted piranha, in the river that runs through the Guangxi Zhuang region. One piranha was actually captured when it attacked a Liuzhou resident and bit right through his hand drawing blood. The same carnivorous fish also snapped the fingers of another man.

Zhang Kai Bo, 31, was giving his dog a bath in the river when he was mauled by several piranhas. One fish sank its razor-sharp teeth into his hand, but he managed to rip it off and throw it to the river bank. When his friend went to check on the piranha, it was still alive and buried its teeth into his fingers.

Zhang took the fish to local experts the same day who confirmed that it was a piranha.

A bounty of 1,000 yuan ($157) was offered by Liuzhou city officials for every piranha caught, leading to a fishing frenzy. After four days, the search was called off since no piranha had been caught and many local fish breeds were dying in nets.

It's a mystery as to how the piranha ended up in the Liujiang River.

Georgia Woman and Boy

(LaFayette, Georgia) A 20-year-old local woman, Crystal Leeanne Cothern, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Cothern faces a charge of statutory rape.

The minor stayed with Cothern for a few days, telling his mother that he was staying over with a friend, according to captain Stacey Meeks of the LaFayette Police Department.

“It was consensual, but due to his age it’s statutory rape since he can’t consent,” Meeks said.

The boy eventually told his mother the truth and that he had a relationship with the woman and it had been sexual.

Cothern has been arrested. Details on booking are unavailable.

An "electric" car that actually runs on a toxic form of alcohol (methanol)

Green, they may be. But electric cars have struggled to overcome one of the main shortfalls that put buyers off - an inferior range to their petrol-powered rivals. That may be about to change after a new electric car was unveiled that promises to go 500 miles (800km) before the battery needs recharging.

The Modular Energy Carrier concept (MECc), created by three Danish companies, uses bio-methanol to bolster its battery life.

Mogens Lokke, CEO of ECOmove, designers of the innovative 'QBEAK' car said bio-methanol was far better than diesel or gasoline because it produces substantially less carbon dioxide.

'In combination with the way we built the car, which is really lightweight (425 kilograms), we can get the 500-mile range,' he told CNN.

A bio-methanol/ water is converted by the fuel cell to create electricity, while waste heat from the process powers the car's heating and cooling system.

It also benefits from a innovative chassis design which has really pushed the technology forward. 'Instead of putting in a fixed battery, we have built in (six) modules that can be fitted inside the chassis. We can use battery power in the modules or any other kind of energy source,' Lokke said.

The award-winning QBEAK also uses patented in-wheel electric motors to deliver a top speed of 75mph (120kph).

According to Mads Friis Jensen from Serenergy, the designers of the fuel cell, bio-methanol is a cheap and abundant fuel with a short carbon chain. Compared to gasoline, bio-methanol production can cut CO2 emissions by more than 70 per cent

The U.S. Department for Energy (DOE) says direct methanol fuel cells are not hampered by the storage problems that affect other green fuels like hydrogen because as a liquid it's easier to transport and supply through current infrastructure.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Bad Smelling Water

(Fort Worth, Texas)

Officials are telling Fort Worth residents that although the North Texas city's water currently doesn't taste or smell very good, it is safe to drink.

I experienced a similar situation a number of years ago during a temporary assignment in New Orleans. After checking into a local hotel, I turned on the television to catch the news and was shocked to hear an announcer caution area residents not to be alarmed if their tap water smelled like gasoline.

Checking immediately, I didn't notice any gasoline smell from the hotel's tap water nor at any time during my stay in Louisiana. Maybe the problem was localized to a particular area and corrected quickly. In any event, I stuck with bottled water for consumption.

To this day, I've heard no reasonable explanation of how gasoline can be mixed up with tap water.

DHS TELLS BORDER AGENTS TO RUN & HIDE

Military and Law Enforcement Officials understand that desertion of your post is a serious and severely punishable offense. Yet new FEMA and DHS are officially sanctioning desertion and dereliction of duty by instructing agents to run and hide from danger.

The DHS' new mandatory class, "Active Shooter" for Customs and Border patrol agents, instructs it's on and off duty personnel to literally "run away" and "hide" and only engage dangerous suspects if all attempts to "Run and Hide" have been exhausted.

From the mandatory FEMA-administered computer course, entitled "IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do,"

* Evacuate: If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.

* Hide out: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.

* Take action: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter

Customs agents themselves are disgusted with new Federal instruction. Brandon Judd, leader of Arizona's Customs & Border Patrol Union # 2544 wrote "We are now taught in an `Active Shooter' course that if we encounter a shooter in a public place we are to `run away' and `hide' If we are cornered by such a shooter we are to (only as a last resort) become `aggressive' and `throw things' at him or her. We are then advised to `call law enforcement' and wait for their arrival (presumably, while more innocent victims are slaughtered)."

CBP Agents know they are obligated to protect the whether they are on duty or not. Given the new instructions, some are worried they will be punished should they do their job and take down a gunman as in the cases of Ft. Hood or Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Another post by a CBP agent on the local Union #2544 website goes on to say "It is always comforting to know that for those of us who carry a weapon when we are off-duty, if we should encounter such a situation, stop a shooter and save countless lives, we can look forward to being disciplined or fired by the Border Patrol because we should have run away to hide and then maybe thrown objects at the deranged killer instead of taking action and stopping him with a firearm,".

THIS IS THE AMERICAN BORDER and the force that keeps the bad guys out. Yet now our own Department of Homeland Security, ostensibly charged with keeping America safe, is telling enforcement officers to "run away".

This isn't the first time DHS has issued boneheaded and downright dangerous policies. In fact, the night Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed, his team of BORTAC agents was following DHS policy when they fired bean bag warning shots at AK-47 armed Mexican bandits. Not surprisingly, the bandits fired back with live ammunition and Agent Brian Terry was killed.

Right here, right now, we have armed Gangs, Drug runners, illegal Aliens and even Muslim terrorists coming across our borders. Apparently DHS would just as soon let the bad guys in than do anything to stop them.

This sort of insanity MUST STOP. Our borders need to be protected, running and hiding or throwing bean bags won't cut it. We need an active, engaged policy to protect America and her people!

Received by email from Ameripac

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).